Shopper, drinker and diner numbers recover as UK retailers and hospitality firms reopen
Restaurant and pub reservations soared and shoppers headed back to the high street in vast numbers as coronavirus restrictions on outdoor hospitality and retailers lifted.
The latest data showed that UK seated diner reservations on Saturday reached 60 per cent of the levels seen on the equivalent day in 2019, pre-pandemic.
Figures were even higher – by 19 percentage points – on Monday last week, which was the first day that pubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen for outdoor trading.
Reservation levels hit 79 per cent of the equivalent Monday in 2019.
Meanwhile, overall retail footfall in the UK last week was at 75 per cent of pre-Covid levels, and was up 31 percentage points on the previous week.
Of the 95 per cent of UK adults that left home in the last seven days, 74 per cent said they had gone shopping for essential items such as food and medicine.
However, the proportion of consumers who shopped for other items increased “notably” by six percentage points to 20 per cent compared to the previous week.
The official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that Brits also began travelling into the office in higher numbers.
People that travelled to work in the week ending 18 April increased slightly on the previous week to 55 per cent, while the percentage of those working exclusively from home remained similar to the week earlier at 27 per cent.